I have a 1999 CR-V 5spd and the problems I'm having with it is pretty frusturating. When I try to start my car up with the key in the ignition held it will try to crank over. It could start up immediately or it will continue to try and crank and then eventually start up but very slowly. I can post a video to show you what I'm talking about. Now for when I'm actually driving the car down the road it's pretty fine. But the next set of problems that come up is when I'm incline on a hill. For example I would be at a stop light on a very slight hill and if I'm not at least giving the car a little gas it will die out or if it hasnt died on me yet I would try to get off in 1st gear like you would and the car will not let me give it gas to take off. The RPM's will drop and the car would die. So far what I've done with the car is replace the O2 sensor, catalytic converter, and exhaust system. That was all switched because I was on the highway one day coming up a very steep hill and noticed I was starting to lose a bit of power coming up when all of a sudden the cat bursted and all of a sudden the car felt like it wasnt being choked up. And that's it. Please ask any questions and I'll try to answer my best. Help PLEASE!!

 

My first guess at this is that for some reason it's running extremely rich, or the fuel being injected into the cylinders just isn't being burned off effectively enough. Do you have a check engine light on while driving? How old are your spark plugs, wires, distributor, and rotor (secondary ignition parts)? If your secondary ignition stuff has been replaced, was it replaced with quality stuff? It sounds like your catalytic converter failure was due to a clog, and that typically happens when excess fuel is pushed out the exhaust valves in the engine and winds up combusting inside the cat.

 

As of right now there has not been any check engine light. I turn on everyday and have it run for probably 15 minutes. As for the spark plugs and wires, I pulled those off of my other CRV that's sitting around and maybe they aren't so new now but they were in good condition the last time I checked.. I mean I wouldn't use them again if they were bad you know. The distributor and rotor aren't new.. One day I popped off the cap and rotor just to clean the contacts off but never replaced. The secondary parts definitely not replaced.

 

How many miles are on the cap and rotor? How many miles are on the wires from the other CR-V? Did you check the gap when you installed the plugs from the other CR-V?

 

The cap and rotor I do not know I've just bought this car earlier this year and as for the wires I can't give you an exact estimate but I know they're not that old.. I had already salvaged the old distributor from the other CRV and just needs a cap and rotor now.. Now here's the thing.. One of my friends suggest it could be the o2 sensor so he wants me to diagnose by unplugging each o2 individually to see if the car runs any different when it goes into safe mode? And my brother is telling me that it's probably the distributor because the car is running like ****. So I don't know im so confused right now

 

Wait, you pulled the entire distributor off the old CR-V and put it on this '99? How did you nail down the position of the distributor when you installed it? Did you use a timing light and go through the timing procedure?

 

I didn't switch the distributor yet

 

Update on my car the problem has been resolved.. Ended up being the distributor and after switched the puttering went away and my car was back to running normal. All that's left is an exhaust leak but I have that covered